Weekly Zephyr #4: June 22, 2017

Photo by Megan Farmer/KUOW

Two nights ago as you read this, last night as I write it, I went with my friend Kate to a vigil for Charleena Lyles, not far from my house in North Seattle. The vigil was right in front of her home/the site of her murder, Brettler Family Place, in Magnuson Park.  I want to assume that you know who Charleena Lyles is, but I have to assume that you might not.  After a Killing by Police, Friends and Family Mourn the Loss of Charleena Lyles  "Is," "who Charleena Lyles is," I want to say "is" because I don't want to say "was". Was. Say it. That's what you say when someone's dead.   Two days after the not-guilty verdict comes down for Philando Castile's killer, this tiny, vulnerable woman is killed by the police with her children right there in the apartment with her.   There's nothing else we're going to be talking about in this newsletter today, in case you're wondering. And there won't be much talking at all.  When Kate and I walked up to the vigil-in-progress—walking straight up to the face of the building, no angle, just a flat-out perpendicular walk, with the building/site of her death getting bigger and bigger as we got closer and closer—there was a point where one began to feel the crowd and feel the building and what happened there and not just see it. Walk, see it, walk see it, WHOOM. The aching, electric heaviness. Palpable as jello.

GoFundMe: CHARLEENA LYLES #SHEHASANAME

That's a link and not a headline. Please click on it. Monika Davis told us at the vigil that there are some [shameless/desperate] people out there who have made fraudulent GoFundMe campaigns in Charleena's name. That up there is the real one—identifiable by the single picture of Charleena, and Monika's name—and her family needs the funding so please have at it as hard as you can and share it everywhere.

 Ending the Prison Industrial Complex: EPIC Seattle Black Star Line Mothers for Police Accountability Blackout Washington Creative Justice

SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA SAY HER NAME CHARLEENA #BLACKLIVESMATTER